EFA Bid Outcome

Newquay Tretherras received news from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) on Monday 28th April that its bid for Capital Funding to develop a new core building has narrowly missed out on securing £2.4 million for a new build.

The EFA received bids from 3,300 projects from 2,015 academies, totalling over £1,400 million; approaching FOUR times the £394 million allocation of this round.

The school’s bid would have been the first stage of a phased strategy to improve the whole academy site.By securing funding a new two storey build of 20 modern classrooms to support the core subjects of English and Maths would have been built at the junior end of the school.

The Capital Funding bid of the academy narrowly missed out by scoring 64% when 72% was the threshold to secure funding. Nevertheless the Tretherras bid did receive some favorable support and positive comments, and was ranked extremely highly for value for money.

Director of Finance and Estates, Mr. Andy Keast, who has worked extensively on the proposal for a new build commented, “Securing funding is increasingly difficult. We felt we had put forward a very strong case and it appears we missed out by only a few marks. The number of academies applying for a finite amount of funding is increasing year on year and, as the EFA has itself acknowledged, the quality of those bids is equally improving making it more challenging to distinguish success criteria compared to others. ”

Mrs Sue Martin Headteacher at the academy emailed all staff and Governors to pass on the news. “This work has not been in vain.We will consider carefully the feedback we have received from the EFA and will resubmit the bid as soon as possible for the next round. I feel confident we can address the minor issues which were raised, and thank all members of the NT community who supported us.”

Newquay Tretherras will also review the feedback received regarding the second bid for Science laboratory refurbishments and, likewise, hopes to resubmit this bid later in the year.

Chair of Governors Mrs Sarah Karkeek said, “Whilst we are disappointed, we will not be defeated. We had excellent local support and planning permission has now been granted. We also had strong support from Stephen Gilbert MP and Chief Executive of the EFA, and we will build on this to achieve our dream.”